Books

I believe books will never disappear. It is impossible for it to happen. Of all mankind’s diverse tools, undoubtedly the most astonishing are his books. All the others are extension of the body. The telephone is an extension of his voice; the telescope and microscope extensions of his sight; the sword and the plow are extensions of his arm. In Caesar and Cleopatra, when Bernard Shaw refers to the Library of Alexandria, he says it is mankind’s memory. I would add it is also mankind’s imagination. Humanity’s vigils have generated infinite pages of infinite books. Mankind owes all that we are to the written word. Why? What is our past but a succession of dreams? What difference is there between dreaming and remembering? Between remembering dreams and recalling the past? Books are the great memories of the centuries. Consequently their function is irreplaceable. If books were to disappear, history would disappear. So would men.

Jorge Luis Borges

Books Will Never Disappear, Or Will They?

I agree with a lot of people, including Jorge Luis Borges, that books will never disappear. How can they? They’re an extension of our memory. They’ve brought us to the pinnacle of our intelligence. They’ve created hundreds of wonderfully outstanding libraries from where we can learn anything we desire. We can learn about quantum physics, religion, politics, fauna and flora, and a host of other things that if we did not write them down, they would not have survived. They’ve helped us create bookclubs that are upheld by millions of fans who go out of their way to read books, to acquire them and thousands who write reviews of them, hundreds more who depend on them as life sustenance. I find it really hard to believe that they'll disappear. People won't just let them go away for all they've come to mean to us, and the future that they'll most definite shape with us.

Books cannot and will never disappear. I’ll be the first one to do something to make them never go away, to make them stay forever, even though nowadays with the new exceptional technology that has brought about all these different e-readers and i-pads, one cannot refuse to recognize that the essence of books as we know them today may be seriously affected by the ever-growing facilities that these apparatuses or gizmos render when it comes to acquiring books, e-books, as they are now called. You can download them and take them with you wherever you go without worrying about their being damaged. We can carry a library with us now, one consisting of millions of books, something that was once costly and difficult to maintain in every way you look at it. I’m beginning to be doubtful as to whether they’ll ever disappear because of the new e-format and the amount of people who are currently doing most of their reading on the screen.

Soon We'll all be Reading from a Screen

The decision whether they’ll disappear or not is hard to make. There are a lot of people who say they will; others who say they won’t. That is going to take a while for us to be able to definitive kind of conclusion. But, for the time being, there are a lot of things we can do, and keep doing so that their presence will be around for years to come. What will happen to the future of books? Who’ll decide on their outcome? What do you think? Will they ever disappear? Share your thoughts and ideas right here with us and don’t hesitate to stand up for your choice.

Fifty years from now almost everybody will be reading on the screen, through a computer, or one of the famous e-readers that will be available to all kinds of people, from every walk of life. Schools and libraries and even The Church is playing an important role in leading the general populace to do their reading on one of these devices. It is obvious that their growth is climbing at a steady rate as they become more and more sophisticated and easier to acquire and use. If books are to disappear, they certainly will be a prime factor in causing this disappearance.

Booklovers will Eventually Become E-readers

If you're a booklover, you'll most likely start reading your books on the screen with one of your favorite e-readers. They're becoming so popular that a lot of people who are into the habit of reading will eventually begin using them if a lot of them aren't already doing so. It's going to be much easier for us to read by way of one of these devices.

We at Wade Hilton from Jamaica have already accumulated a substantial amount of comments on this disappearance and most of the people, who consider themselves booklovers, seem to believe that books will never go away. They'll always be around, especially so long as we have schools, universities and libraries. Very few of them point to the advent of this new way of reading, the e-book format, which will eventual cause books to disappear. There's no doubt about that. Let us hear from you, your version of what is going to happen to books.

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